NCO DV Response - Help please

[Paxx]

Hello all -

I'm in the process of trying to clean up my fiance's credit and I have a question for you regarding a DV response we received from NCO after they sent a dunning letter.  The letter reads as follows:

A link to the document can be found here

Dear Paxx's beautiful Fiance,

Thank you for you inquiry regarding the above-referenced account. Please be advised that the above-referenced account is closed in our office.

According to our files, we have not reported the above-referenced account to a credit bureau. Please be advised that NCO Financial Systems, Inc. Cannot effect a change to how any other company or entity may have listed the account on your credit profile.

We appreciate the opportunity to respond to your inquiry

Very truly yours,

Renita Sherman

Incoming Data Management

My questions are as follows:

1.) I am assuming that NCO could not validate and is why they closed the account without trying to collect. Am I correct in assuming this?  If I am correct, does there inability to validate the account forbid them from selling to another agency? Can NCO choose to validate at a later time and if so, do they have to send that validation or send another dunning letter?

 2.) This collection is within SOL - can NCO or any other agency sue? If NCO does sue, can I simply bring this document and state that they were unable to validate and thus I am unable to assume responsibility?

3.) The OC (Wells Fargo) is showing this as charge off and at a zero balance. Will they be able to pursue this matter further with other agencies or since they have already sold the account and they no longer involved?

Thanks all, I really appreciate the help as always

Message Edited by Paxx on 02-27-2009 07:02 PM

[Anonymous]

NCO can not sell/transfer/assign the debt to another CA, as that is collection activity. FDCPA prohibits collection activity if validation has been requested and they have not provided it.

They can send back to the OC and the OC can then send to another CA. However, if the OC sold the account to NCO, the OC won't take it back.

As for why they closed the account, it is possible that have already transferred it to another agency prior to your DV request. However, you say you received a dunning letter from them, so if that was recent, I doubt this is the reason they closed the account. More than likely they closed because they could not validate.

As for the re-opening the account if they were somehow able to validate....I am not sure. I would think that if they just simply closed it upon requesting validation, then you will likely not hear anything else.

I received a similar letter and have not heard from them since, almost a year now.

As for suing, I don't know. If they were to sue, make sure to answer the summons and state that you requested validation per FDCPA and you got a response that they had closed the account and never got anything showing you the validity of the account. Keep that letter somewhere safe!

I don't see the OC ever involved again, as they have sold it.

[Paxx]

Sidewinder -

As always you're posts shed a huge amount of light on the subject. We received the dunning letter from NCO and within a week (maybe two) we sent the DV request CMRRR to which we received the green cards about 30 days ago. As you stated, I don't think they had a chance to sell or transfer this to another agency.

I guess we'll just keep an hawk eye on her files. I pull both of our reports daily so I will know if this was transferred or if anything else comes from this collection account.  If I have any other useful info relating to this thread I'll post here so perhaps the information will be of use to someone else that stumbles on it.

Thanks again - I truly love myFico and the community here.  Without it I would be clueless and lost regarding credit scores!